Creepy Robot Alert
China is getting into the humanoid robot game. Baizhixing,
or “smart star”, doesn’t play soccer or have individually moving
fingers, but he can make facial expressions and gesticulate at
preschoolers. Dr Bao Qingshan, in charge of the development of this
shoeless Teddy Ruxpin at the Harbin Institute of Technology, is quoted:
“It
combines animal imitation technology and modern preschool education
theory, integrating control systems, complicated mechanical structures,
speech synthesis and expandable networking technology… All the core
technologies have been developed independently, and are equal to the
advanced techniques utilized abroad. We have complete intellectual
patent rights.”
I can’t tell if the little girl
in the photo is fascinated by Baizhixing or about to start bawling, but
the half-lidded leer the robot’s giving the camera is pretty
unnerving.
[Via Carbongeek]
